Beyond the Chiefs: Will Shields talks about his life, family and love of music
Will Shields tilted his head and paused a moment as he pondered the question.
Is there anything that people might be surprised to learn about you?
“I’m pretty basic,” said the Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Chiefs offensive guard. “Nothing outlandish, that kind of thing.”
Unless taking a power nap in his locker before every game might qualify.
“I’d do it right before the game — just take a nap in my locker,” he said. “I’d tell them, ‘Wake me up five minutes before we go out.’
“I used to drive my teammates crazy with that. They’d be like, ‘What are you doing?’ And someone would say, ‘Oh, just leave him alone. He’s got to go to sleep.’ And I’d sleep 15, 20 minutes.”
A decade since his retirement after 14 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and a year and a half since his induction into the Hall of Fame, Shields, now 45, remains a popular figure in the Kansas City area. Today, he’s as widely recognized for his role leading his Will to Succeed Foundation as he is for setting a Chiefs franchise record of 224 games and 223 starts and playing in 12 consecutive Pro Bowls.
“I’ve accomplished a lot on the field, and it’s great,” he said in an interview this month. “But I enjoy the stuff you do off the field, because it affects people’s lives in a positive way. They say, every day, make it the best, and make everyone else around you better. That’s what you strive to do.”
Shields said those attributes were instilled in him early in his childhood. His father was in the military; Shields was born in Fort Riley, Kan., and raised in Lawton, Okla., home of the Army’s Fort Sill.
“Basically, life was good,” he said. “I grew up in a town that was a great size for us. You could bicycle anywhere. And being a military base, you had that discipline piece. And I think that really helped quite a bit, to have that mom and dad there that was constantly telling you what to do and how to do it.”
Shields said his dad did two tours of duty when he was growing up.
“But he was home most of the time,” he said. “Regardless if he was in the house or gone, we knew that dad’s presence was somewhere near. And he didn’t mind getting on a plane and coming home to take care of business if he had to.”
While his dad was “very strict,” Shields said, “my mom was sort of a calming factor.”
“On the field I was his,” he said, “and off the field I was hers.”
Shields said he and his two older siblings all had jobs as youngsters.
“My brother and sister both had paper routes,” he said, “so I ended up working with them and after that, taking over the paper routes. On my bicycle.
“Things like that really help develop your work ethic. You gotta get up at five in the morning to go deliver, then go to school, then do it again in the afternoon. That gives you that beginning of discipline.”
Shields said he started playing football in grade school. His first official team was the Westwood Elementary Tigers in Lawton.
“Before that, we just played pickup ball in the front yard — just tackle the man with the ball, two-hand touch street ball, that kind of stuff,” he said. “We made our teams up by our street names.”
He played other sports as well — a little basketball and baseball — until about fifth grade.
“I dabbled, but more or less, football’s been it,” he said. “I wasn’t good in all the sports. I was always that bigger kid that sort of bumbled and stumbled around people, tried not to knock people over, that kind of thing.”
During his middle school years, Shields found he was talented at things other than football. He’d been in choir since kindergarten — it was mandatory — but in the seventh grade, his sister told him to try vocal music.
“And I loved it to death,” he said. “I did it all the way through high school. I was in honor choir, jazz choir, show choir, all of that. It gave us an opportunity to see something different. We traveled. We’d go to Dallas and other places to compete. So it was sort of like instead of playing AAU football, I did AAU choir.”
He even persuaded some of his teammates to give it a try.
“I brought a lot of my teammates with me after my first year. I recruited guys — ‘Hey, man, you want to join choir? Dude, it’s a blast.’ And the next thing you know, there’s another guy and another guy. One of my friends, he was like 6’9. Imagine him up on risers.”
When preparing for Chiefs games, he said, he had to listen to slow music.
“I couldn’t listen to upbeat, fast stuff that gets you pumped until I actually hit the field,” he said. “I had to calm myself, so I would listen to jazz, I would listen to R&B, all kinds of slow stuff. Sort of like the calm before the storm, in a sense, because if I got too hyper too early, you sort of ran out of juice.”
Shields met his future wife, Senia, while at the University of Nebraska, where he played football and received a communications degree. She was a Danish citizen — and still is — who was working as a project director for Gallup Polls.
“We had a mutual friend who introduced us,” he said, “and we’ve been together ever since.”
They were married in 1993, the day before he started his first training camp with the Chiefs.
One of Shields’ first actions as a Chiefs player was to form the Will to Succeed Foundation.
“If you were going into Arrowhead at that time and you’d look around, you’d see all the guys that were on the board,” he said. “And you’d notice one thing about all those guys, is that a big percentage of them played a long time. They put their roots down, they set a tone for everyone else that comes in.”
He wanted to follow their lead.
“I wanted to say, ‘Look, we’re here to stay and we’re here to do something positive in the community. These guys have already set the tone, and we want to make sure we follow that and make it even better as we move forward.’ ”
He decided his foundation would focus on battered and abused women and children. But its reach has gone way beyond that. The foundation has now worked with dozens of other groups in the Kansas City area and has set the standard for players’ charitable organizations.
Most days, Shields can be found at 68’s Inside Sports, his fitness and sports training center in Overland Park named after the number on his Chiefs uniform.
“I play basketball here at the club all the time,” he said. “Every day I can. We have our lunchtime group here. We get after it. We have a blast. That’s when I get my player fix — hanging out with the guys, talking trash, all that. That’s when I feel like I’m still an athlete.”
It also keeps him in shape, he said: “I’m actually today three pounds lighter than what I played (football) at.”
Shields stays in touch with former players. He’s a coordinator for the NFL Legends Community, an organization designed to connect former players with each other and their former teams.
“We’re always doing stuff together, trying to build that camaraderie of guys there,” he said. “You’re always a part of that group, and that’s what makes it cool.”
Shields’ children are now grown, but he remains a big part of their lives. His daughter, Sanayika, played basketball at Drury University and got a degree in biology. She wants to be a pediatrician, he said, and will take the Medical College Admission Test at the end of this month.
His son, Shavon, played basketball at Nebraska and also received a biology degree. He’s now playing as a guard and a forward for the Fraport Skyliners, a pro basketball team in Germany.
The youngest, Solomon, is studying film and communications at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Shields said his goal is to keep doing what he’s doing.
“I want to help all my young athletes get better mentally, physically and be aware of what they can accomplish,” he said. “It’s not necessarily just on the field. It’s life in general.”
He doesn’t see himself living anywhere but Kansas City.
“My kids grew up here; this is home,” he said. “Right now, until I find another place that feels better, this is what I like.
“Kansas City is perfectly fine.”
Judy L. Thomas: 816-234-4334, @judylthomas
Q&A with Will Shields
Was 68 always your jersey number?
“No. I was 78 in high school, 56 in college, then 75 in college, then 68 in the pros. They just give you numbers. When I started with the Chiefs, I wanted 75. But 75, when I first came in, was a defensive lineman that had played like six, seven years, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not asking him for that number. He can keep that number. I’ll just try to make 68 as good as I can.’ ”
Your favorite things to do in KC?
“It just depends on what it is. We like going to eat at different places. That’s what’s cool about it is that you always find someplace new.”
Is it hard to go out without being recognized?
“Not really. Even though I’m a bigger person, I’m not huge — six-two-and-a-half is really short for a football guy — so I don’t stand out as much as you would if you were with all the guys, cause you’ve got guys who are 6’7, 6’6. Some people will ask, ‘Did you play sports?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I did, back in the day.’ ”
Do you go to every Chiefs game?
“Not every game, but I go to most of them now. Before, I had a son playing basketball at Nebraska, so I would spend my time there, then my daughter was (playing basketball) at Drury, so I’d spend my time there.”
What changes have you seen in how pro football is played since you retired?
“They want to make everything fast and quick and a lot more scoring. And you always feel that the next generation after you gets away with more things than what you did. You can hold a little more now, and you can do those things that you couldn’t do before. You can get away with more just because of the sort of imbalance of line play right now, because you can’t spend enough time developing our offensive linemen — we’re behind, trying to catch up to the defensive linemen most of the time.”
Any predictions for the Super Bowl?
“None for the Super Bowl. I don’t gamble and all that stuff.”
What advice would you give someone who dreams of excelling in a sport?
“Strive for your best of what you can do. Be prepared. That’s the hard part about it, is being ready when the opportunity hits. How are you prepared for what you say you want to do? Education is the key, because the more you know, and the more you know you don’t know, helps you become a better person. Because then you’ll look at it from all angles; not just from the one that maybe you think is right.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Beyond the Chiefs: Will Shields talks about his life, family and love of music."